Thoughts From the Morning After: FSU 31 Notre Dame 27

That Now Infamous Call

Jimbo Fisher knew Notre Dame’s receivers were running screens on the flat route that Corey Robinson scored on the very first time he saw it.

“The first half, they ran a play like that. We thought it was close to that,” said Fisher after the game. “We said [to the officials], ‘just be aware of it.’ And I’ll wait and look at it on film. Wait and see. The first half we said be aware of it.”

After watching the film, today Fisher told local ESPN Radio personality Jeff Cameron that it was indeed a penalty.

Many in the national media — albeit begrudgingly — admitted the same.

Take the garnet and gold (or navy and gold) colored glasses off for a second and just look at this in terms of X’s and O’s. While a lot of teams run plays that make use of crossing routes or lend themselves to “inadvertent screens” the Irish made little to no effort to hide that on the play in question Saturday night.

On the snap of the ball, Irish receivers CJ Prosise and William Fuller released and immediately made contact with the defensive backs aligned on that side of the field. There are three DB’s in that area of the field, Ronald Darby and Jalen Ramsey both get tied up by receivers while PJ Williams gets walled off leaving Robinson alone in the flat.

If Notre Dame’s receivers put their arms up or act as if they’re running routes that flag never comes out — it’s not like the officials are trying to penalize Notre Dame — and Robinson likely still catches the ball without anyone getting to him first. But that was egregious. It was the right call. Notre Dame sent two receivers into that route with no other visible intention than to block FSU’s DB’s illegally.

After the game Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was less than thrilled with the call.

”We execute that play every day,” said Kelly. “And we do it legally and that’s the way we coach it. We don’t coach illegal plays.”

The NCAA rules actually dictate (under Article 8-B of its pass interference rules): “It is the responsibility of the offensive player to avoid the opponents.”

So technically, if that’s how Notre Dame coaches it– the Irish do coach illegal plays.

Prosise takes two steps before fully engaging Ramsey in a block. There’s not even an attempt to disguise it.

Like FSU or not, that was the right call.